spacetoday.net: Delta launches Italian satellite

Delta launches Italian satellite

Posted: Sat, Oct 25, 2008, 7:44 AM ET (1144 GMT)
Delta 2 launch of COSMO-Skymed 3 (ULA)

A Delta 2 rocket launched the third in a series of Italian remote sensing satellites Friday night. The Delta 2 7420-10 lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 10:28 pm EDT Friday (0228 GMT Saturday) and deployed the COSMO-Skymed 3 satellite into a Sun-synchronous orbit 58 minutes later. the spacecraft is the third in a series of radar imaging satellites built by Thales Alenia Space Italia for the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The first two spacecraft were launched on Delta 2 rockets in June and December 2007. A fourth satellite is planned for launch in 2010, although no launch provider for that mission has been chosen yet.